City tries to take sex off the market

There are some storylines that jeer constantly at one of the most enduring characteristics of a caring community — the belief that we can help people change their lives.

In Worcester, one of those storylines has been the city’s fight against prostitution.

Recently, we were told the City Council asked City Manager Mike O’Brien to file legislation that would allow the seizure of vehicles involved in prostitution. This, of course, is not a novel idea.

In 1992, the Main South Alliance for Public Safety asked the City Council to enact an ordinance that would impound the vehicles of individuals arrested for soliciting sex, and to seize the vehicles if those individuals were convicted. The City Council enacted such an ordinance in 1994, but the law department subsequently ruled that the measure required legislative approval.

The city said it would seek such an approval in 1996, the year Bill Breault, chairman of the Main South Alliance for Public Safety, declared that there were about 15 hookers working in the Main South area, down from the 40 working the area six years previously.

It bears keeping those numbers in mind, because here is a list of some of the proposed or attempted solutions to fighting prostitution in the city since the early ’90’s:

•In 1993, residents of Main South took to the streets with walkie-talkies to detect and report prostitution activities and other street crimes. That same year, the city talked about taking out restraining orders to prohibit prostitutes from working the area, publicizing the names of johns and setting up a surveillance camera in the neighborhood.

•In 1994, then-mayor Raymond Mariano pushed to have the photographs and addresses of those arrested and convicted of prostitution published in their hometown newspaper. Mr. Mariano also asked the City Council to consider getting area cable channels to broadcast the names of convicted johns over their community access channels.

•In 2004, the city adopted and kicked off Developing Alternatives for Women Now, the primary goal of which was to get prostitutes off drugs, off the streets and into productive lives.

•In 2005, the Police Department unveiled its Operation Rolling Thunder, a motorcycle patrol that was supposed to tamp down prostitution.

•In 2006, the city began mailing Dear John letters to anyone arrested for soliciting a prostitute, as well as to the owner of the car used in the crime.

•In 2007, a John school program, which aims to help men change their attitude about paid sex, was launched.

So what has been the impact of all this focus on prostitution in Main South?

Well, in 2006, we reported that from January 1 to December 16 of the previous year, the police arrested 190 people offering to engage in sex for a fee.

We learned last week that since 2007, the police have made nearly 1,000 prostitution-related arrests, which is about 200 such arrests per year.

Police Chief Gary Gemme also now pegs the number of known prostitutes in Main South at about 50, but believes there are only about a dozen working the streets daily.

So despite everything that has been done in the past 20 years, the level of prostitution has remained relatively the same in the city.

Now city leaders are talking about getting the Division of Public Health involved.

“Arrest alone is not the solution…,” Chief Gemme noted in a report to the City Council.

“Long term solutions need to focus on addressing drug dependency and changing behavior.”

Perhaps what is important here is not so much this futile fight so far against prostitution, but that our faith in our ability to help people change their lives endures.